Oathbound - an overlooked setting?

[DMH]

You kiddin' right? The Forge has one of the *best* core stories I've seen! A group of adventurers is pulled from disparate dimensions and thrown together by enigmatic entities who subtly and overtly push them to their breaking point every week until they break or dominate. That's *exciting* for a core story!

Thank you, I have never thought of the setting in this exact manner. It even gave me an idea for a very different OB campaign (where the gods get involved).

Though it's anyone's guess whether or not certain prestige race levels will advance class abilities or not.

My guess is that they will not. It is sort of like the bloodlines in UA- where you have to give up a level (or 2 or 3) to gain all kinds of spiffy powers. I have no problems with the idea since Genjitsu's Shaping the Self did that with powerful racial levels (like giving duergar immunity to disease and additional spell like powers in place of BAB and saves increases). And Shaping the Self is my most favorite d20 supplement.

Penance is huge and built on layer after layer of older cities. Plenty of the surface is abandoned ruins as is a lot of the built over and unstable older city layers. But that leaves room for plenty of lost or hidden things in these areas and the sourcebook fleshes them out.

To give the home audience an idea of how large the city is- 40 million live in less than 5% of the available space. Enough to play a thousand campaigns with all new areas.

A&H I found interesting as far as the science behind alchemy, but on the rules end it was very poorly researched. New feats that allow you to create a handful of things that could easily fit into existing categories, or better yet work with the actual alchemy skill? Nonstandard creation costs for items? Then there's the items themselves, a mortar that gives objects a +2 fort save bonus against burning? I don't even know where to start. A&H really fell short on the rules end.

There is a chart in the book that gives which feats are optional and it makes sense that all the feats except Create Alchana, Perfect Materials, Create Greater Alchana and Create Erlchana are optional as those require knowledge of magic. It annoys me the 3.5 made spellcasting a requirement for alchemy, but I can simply ignore that anyways and use the optional feats as skill focus for a particular subgroup of alchemy (just like how chemistry has many disiplines).

 

[DMH]

I'd play Oathbound before I would play any of those.

So have you played or run it?

 

[DMH]

As for support, what sort of things (besides the domain books) does everyone like to see? Adventures, locations, NPCs?

7 Specific locations- the fortresses of the Black Flock. A quick overview of the moons and suns (unless there is a secret hidden on them that you are going to reveal in The Kiln). A look at the timeline of the Forge and how to run games in different times (say before the Vault).

NPCs- more bloodlords- minor ones that have potential to rival the overlords. Leaders of the insular races like the wygrith (sp?), scar and lunar. Those who have stomped the Flock into the ground and how (esp Abbadon stopping Barbello). How about getting agreements with other publishers to use NPCs from their settings. Not known people, but so that BP can use the CGC in the text and provide a tie in with those settings.

Adventures- find out why the "good" ceptu are attempting to dominate the planet (evil buggers, unfortunately I can't say who Jim compared them to on this board ). Basic dungeon crawl that starts in Oasis and ends in Barrowhold (or Eclipse).

I don't want FR depth, but more is better in this case.

 

[DaveMage]

7 Specific locations- the fortresses of the Black Flock.

I like this suggestion.

 

[Teneb]

I think it's an interesting idea, but I see two potential problems.
1. It's kind of the same thing as giving stats to a god, someone's gonna want to kill it. If the citadels are mapped out, someone, somewhere, is going to want to lay siege to the thing. Personally, I view the citadels of the Flock to be nigh inviolate, a certain death just waiting to happen.

2. Along those lines, a citadel would have to have epic (and I mean really epic) defenses. These are, after all, the bastions of the most powerful beings on the Forge. Also, to do them justice I think they'd have to be huge, and there are challenges in writing something like that.

That being said, it's still a good idea. Food for thought.

 

[DaveMage]

I think it's an interesting idea, but I see two potential problems.
1. It's kind of the same thing as giving stats to a god, someone's gonna want to kill it. If the citadels are mapped out, someone, somewhere, is going to want to lay siege to the thing. Personally, I view the citadels of the Flock to be nigh inviolate, a certain death just waiting to happen.

2. Along those lines, a citadel would have to have epic (and I mean really epic) defenses. These are, after all, the bastions of the most powerful beings on the Forge. Also, to do them justice I think they'd have to be huge, and there are challenges in writing something like that.

That being said, it's still a good idea. Food for thought.

I don't think they have to be huge - after all, very few will even be able to get *in* much less explore them.

As to your first point, I see exactly this as a conclusion to an Oathbound campaign. One of the PCs slays (or at least confronts) a fowl - whether they realize the consequences or not.

 

[Staffan]

I think it's an interesting idea, but I see two potential problems.
1. It's kind of the same thing as giving stats to a god, someone's gonna want to kill it.

Well, that's sort of the point of the fowl...

 

[I'm A Banana]

I just know that whenever I read an OB book, I keep wanting it to be an animated television series.....

 

[DMH]

1. It's kind of the same thing as giving stats to a god, someone's gonna want to kill it.

Let them try. When they are dead for the 50th time, maybe they will get the point that the fortresses were made by hundreds of gods and are indestructible by any means short of freeing the bound god or slaying the flock. I know why the doors are there, but I wonder why the gods allowed them.

2. Along those lines, a citadel would have to have epic (and I mean really epic) defenses. These are, after all, the bastions of the most powerful beings on the Forge. Also, to do them justice I think they'd have to be huge, and there are challenges in writing something like that.

See if the people who wrote WLD would do it on commision.

 

[Treebore]

Back to the original point of this thread for a moment. I have always liked this setting, despite never DMing or playing in it. To the point I have bought every supplement for it, because one day I will find a group of players willing to give this setting a try. Or better yet, a DM I can play under.